


How Harry REALLY Survived Halloween

by Dawen



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, not in a derogatory manner that's just the way Death likes it, purposeful use of it/its pronouns for a sentient being, really it's more like a headcanon, that I turned into a fic, yes all of it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-18
Updated: 2017-07-18
Packaged: 2018-12-03 14:41:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11534352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dawen/pseuds/Dawen
Summary: ... and it wasn't Lily's death.(Although Lily was an important part.)





	How Harry REALLY Survived Halloween

 "Lily, take Harry and go! Run! I'll hold him off!"

Lily pounded up the stairs two at a time, James's words still echoing in her ears. Harry was bawling against her chest, each new curse from the entry making him cry harder. Not for the first time, Lily cursed the anti-Apparition wards that so rarely kept the Death Eaters out but so frequently trapped the Muggleborns and Order members inside.

Her shoulder knocked into the nursery doorframe as, downstairs, James started to scream and didn't stop. The doorknob rattled, turning an alarming shade of red with Lily's desperation. Finally the door clicked open, as James's screams choked to an abrupt stop, and Lily stumbled into the nursery 

The best protections for Harry were on the crib.

She dropped Harry, almost rough, into the crib and thought about dragging the side up from its lowered position. Footsteps started on the stairs, heading up, inexorably drawing nearer, and Lily instead darted her eyes around the room in search of something - anything - to help.

There.

James's Invisibility Cloak. _What was it doing in the nursery corner?_

_Never mind that, there's no time._

Lily darted across the nursery to snatch up the cloak, as those heavy, deliberate steps came closer. _He_ was surely right outside the room by now.

" _Bombarda!"_

_"Protego!"_ Lily shrieked as the nursery door splintered in midair. Shards of wood bounced off of her shield, spreading around the room, ricocheting off the protections on the crib. Lily threw the Invisibility Cloak towards Harry's bawling form, and it landed half on the boy. " _Aspergo!"_ She threw the second spell over her shoulder, and as Voldemort himself stepped through the doorway, the Cloak twisted up and covered Harry completely. Head to toe. Supposedly for warmth, keeping covered in the winter time.

Voldemort saw. His face erupted with fury as Harry's little foot, the last part of him in sight, vanished under the protective cover of the Cloak.

"Not Harry!" Lily screamed, partially to distract Voldemort, partially because it was the truth of a mother's emotions in times like this. "Please, not Harry! Kill me instead!" She edged backwards, closer to the crib - the rocking chair, really, but that was beside the crib - the Portkey resting there -

"Stand aside, you foolish girl! I am here for the boy. No magic will stop me from killing him!"

"Not Harry!"

_"Avada kedavra!"_

_~_

Lily's body hit the nursery floor with a heavy _thump_ , and Death took the chance It had been waiting for - drifting in on an unfelt breeze, bending low to take the young soul from her physical body. It tucked the newly released soul into Its soul bag hanging haphazardly over one bony shoulder, right next to her husband, and chose to wait a little while. The soul wouldn't know a difference of five minutes in getting to the afterlife. 

Voldemort drew in a sharp breath through his nose, fury radiating off his body in waves. Harry was still bawling, and Voldemort turned his wand towards the crib, where the front panel was still lowered and the wails were originating. _"Avada kedavra!"_

The green light shot forward, seeming to hit an unseen object in the crib. And time stood still while Death tried to figure out what, exactly, It was supposed to do. The curse had been cast, It had been summoned again as It had suspected, but - where was the victim? Where was the soul It was to retrieve? It had to take _someone_ , It could not return to the afterlife empty-handed after such a curse was cast.

Time threatened to start forward again, with Death still at a loss. But now was the time to make a decision, so - the light rebounded, off of the unseen object in the crib, enveloping the room in that sickly shade. Death stepped forward and plucked the soul out of the only living being It could find in the nursery, letting the physical body left behind fall to the floor. As though to add insult to Death's injury, the soul It had taken in lieu of the one It was meant to take seemed unusually small, shredded, tattered to pieces. A miniscule fragment fluttered off, but it was no longer in a physical body or in Death's clutch, and so was no longer under Death's influence. Death narrowed Its eyes as the fragment floated on that same unfelt breeze. It would have to return and collect that fragment another time. 

Death left the small house in much the same way It had entered, drifting out to find the next soul to retrieve, three souls packed into Its soul bag, with many more to collect before It could return to the afterlife and release the souls to their next great adventure.

In the house, the last living person hiccupped in the sudden quiet. The spell holding the Cloak over Harry slowly dissolved, as Lily's influence over her spells and magic faded from the world. A real draft blew in from the shattered door, leading to the destroyed remains of the rest of the house. Harry shoved the Cloak off of his head; if Death had still been in the room, It would have put the small, tattered soul back into the body and taken this one instead, the one It was meant to take, the one It could not find until now. The one hidden under that foolhardy gift It had once given to the wise youngest brother. The last few remaining tears slid down Harry's cheeks. "Mama?"

As though in response, a last explosion rocked the house, blowing out the windows and tearing through the weak interior walls. A shard of glass burst through Lily's fading protections. Harry screamed and started crying anew as it left a strangely-shaped, jagged gash on his forehead.

The small piece of soul that had frustrated Death saw its opportunity, and tucked itself into the open flesh of the wound. It would be sealed inside and grow stronger as the injury healed and scabbed over. 

The Invisibility Cloak slithered off of the crib entirely, pooling into a heap on the floor. 

Outside the property boundary, there was the heavy landing of Hagrid arriving by Portkey, and in the distance there was the familiar sound of a revving motorcycle. 

Harry sobbed.

**Author's Note:**

> Has anyone done this before? It's been years, surely someone's done this before.
> 
> Well, I haven't seen it done before, so here, have this.
> 
> Also it's been a while since I wrote this, but if I recall correctly "aspergo" is a play off a Latin word meaning "to cover"... but now I can't find it again, so who knows. It's from something Latin, anyway.


End file.
